Msgr. Cormac Burke is a judge of the Roman Rota, the highest appeals court within the

Catholic Church. Raised in Ireland, and trained in both civil and canon law, he has

taught in schools in Europe, North America, and Africa. A prolific author, he is the

1995 recipient of the Linacre Award of the National Federation of Catholic Physicians.

[1]Can. 1055 §1. The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring, has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized.